Girl ends life to donate eyes to dad
Ashis Poddar, TNN Jul 4, 2011, 12.15am IST
NADIA:  For days, Mumpy would listen quietly as the elders discussed how only  an eye surgery could save her father's vision and a kidney transplant  her brother's life. But both surgeries were beyond the family's meagre  means. So, Mumpy hit upon a plan, which to her 12-year-old mind seemed  the answer to all troubles. She would kill herself, which would save the  dowry, too, and her organs would give her loved ones back their lives.
  Mumpy did stick to her plan. But the suicide note in which she had  scribbled down her wishes was found the day after she was cremated.
  The incident took place in Dhantala's Jhorpara on June 27. Her father's  and brother's ailments had left Mumpy Sarkar, a Class VI student,  anxious. One of the kidneys of her brother Monojit, a Class XI student,  was damaged and the other was getting weak. Father Mridul Sarkar, a  daily wager, was also gradually losing his eyesight.
"The family  had approached the local MLA for help. We had decided to grant them some  money for the boy's treatment. But the tragedy happened all of a  sudden," said Dhantala panchayat pradhan Tapas Tarafdar.
 
Mumpy  had taken elder sister Monica, a Class VIII student, into confidence and  had urged her to commit suicide as well for the "cause". When Mumpy  told Monica about her plan on the morning of June 27, the latter laughed  it off and left for school. Their father was away at work and mother  Rita had gone to fetch rice.
 
"Finding herself alone at home,  Mumpy consumed Thiodan, a pesticide. Then, she ran to meet her father,  who was about half a kilometre away. She told him that she had dreamt  that someone had poured poison into her mouth and her stomach ached. Her  alarmed father took her to a local pharmacy immediately where she was  given some medicines. But her condition worsened soon and she had to be  rushed to the local Baranberia hospital. From there, she was referred to  Anulia hospital. But the doctors declared her brought dead," Tarafdar  said.
 
It was only the day after her cremation that Mumpy's father  found a note on her bed. Addressed to her mother, the girl requested  her to make use of her eyes and kidney for the treatment of her father  and brother. This left the aggrieved family inconsolable. "We were too  late in understanding the feelings of a very sensitive child," Mridul  wept. Mumpy's mother has gone into shock.